My wife Shirley was looking for a new activity to fill the void of her recent retirement from women’s hockey. My new business acquaintance Kristi was new to town and looking for local things to do.

As a fitness pro, it was easy to suggest that the two of them connect for some exercise! So I introduced them to each other.

They went back and forth for a week or so on options and venues from mountain biking to hiking and eventually settled on a run date about 7 days out.

What happened next shouldn’t have surprised me, but it did. It also reminded me of the importance of two concepts critical to fitness success: an impending deadline and a trusted training partner.

I’ve long tried to impress people on the significance of a training partner: someone to hold you accountable to simply showing up, and who is impervious to your many excuses for not exercising!

Sometimes your partner is your personal trainer, but it can just as well be a buddy on the same fitness excursion as you are. In looking back at the years I was most competitive as a body builder, and then at the years I was competitive as a mountain bike racer, I was always at my best when I had a consistent training partner. Always.

Neither Shirley nor Kristi had been running much before the date was set, but THEY BOTH RAN 3 TIMES INDIVIDUALLYin the week prior to the meetup run date!3 times each, in all likelihood, that neither would have run had the date not been set.

Maybe it’s the sometimes subtle competitiveness in all of us that won’t allow us to be the weak link on a team. Or maybe it was the sense of urgency created with a firm run date on the calendar, even if only a casual run for two unacquainted women.

Who really knows?

What I do know is that establishing that deadline and committing to a training partner, even if only for a day, is one of the true secrets of Fitness Feng Shui!